Feed-regulating device for cigar-machines



(No Model.)

J. PRANGLEY.

FEED REGULATING DEVICE FOR CIGAR MACHINES.

b No. 357,734. Patented Feb. 15, 1887.

-UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

JAMES PRANGLEY, OF LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

FEED-REGULATING DEVICE FOR CIGAR-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 357,734, dated February 15, 1887.

Application filed October 30, 1886. Serial No. 217,552.

I 0 aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES PRANGLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Irancaster, in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feedltegulating Devices for Cigar-Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to adj nstable feedregulating devices for cigar-maehines. In another application, filed October 28, 1886,No. 217,419, I have described and shown such a machine using a fiatslide having an intermittent longitudinally-reciprocating motion. In the present invention I employ instead a rotary feed-regulating cylinder having adjustablepock ets formed in its cylindrical face. As a modification, this cylinder may be made to oscillate, discharging alternately upon opposite aprons.

In the accompanying drawingsl igure 1 rep resents a perspective view of said regulatingcylinder. Fig. 2 represents a longitudinal central section through said cylinder. Fig. 3 represents a transverse section on the line mm, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 represents the adjusting slides and blocks detached, the upperslide and block taken from below and the second slide and block taken from above. Fig. 5 represents a perspective View of the regulating-cylinder, the hopper to which it is applied, and the supports for the same, shown in dotted lines; and Fig. 6 represents in vertical transverse section a modified form of cylinder or cylinder-segment arranged for supplying two aprons. The adjusting devices are the same in both forms.

A designates a tobacco-supplying hopper, Figs. 5 and (i, mounted 011 a frame, which is shown by dotted lines in Fig. 5. The feedregulating cylinder D, Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 5, rotates under the hopper, said cylinder being mounted on and turning with a shaft, E.

The rotating mechanism and the cigar-forming mechanism are not shown, they not being essential to the present invention, which has to do with the feed-regulating cylinder only. In said cylinderrecesses are arranged at equal peripheral distances. They extend nearly (No model.)

from end to end of the cylinder, and are at an angle to the radial planes. A series of horizontal longitudinal openings,f, extend through the material of the cylinder from one end of each one of said recesses on a level with the bottom of said recess, to allow the latter to be cleaned. A block, G, is reinovably fitted into each one of said recesses at one end thereof, presenting an inclined face, 5 in the other direction.

A plate, y, is fastened to the upper face of block G, and a longitudinal slot, 9", is made through said plate and block, this slot being wider in the block behind said plate than in said plate. A screw, 71, extends up through the slot 9" in plate 9 into the reversely-inclined under face, h, of an adjusting-slide, H, which is of similar shape to said block and rests thereon. \Vhen this slide is pushed in, the action of the reversely-inclined faces 9 h of course tends to raise said slide, and when the slide H is pulled out it descends.

On the flat top of slide H a plate, h is fastened, and two longitudinal slots, 71 similar to 9 are made in this slide and plate. Screws 13 extend up through slots 7L3 into the upper block, I, allowing the endwise motion of the slide H aforesaid. There is also an upper endwise-moving slide, J, which has aplate, j, overlapping upper block, I, this latter plate being provided with a longitudinal slot,j,through which a screw, 9'", passes into said upper block,

I. Springs K, operating by expansion, are

inserted between this upper block, I, and slide J, to move the latter outward when left free so to do. These springs surround guide-rods Z, which are attached to slide J and move freely in and out of block I. This slide J is provided with a raised wall,L, having a curved top, which is flush with the surface of the cyliuder.

The block I is provided at the other end i. 6., the end of block I away from wall L- with a horizontally-turning catch, I, which engages with one notch or another in a rack, M, let into the end wall of the recess F opposite to the end where wall L is located. Vhile such engagement continues this end of block I is prevented from rising or falling. Said rack is arranged in a line at right angles to the bottom of the recess.

Handle-bars NO, having aseries of notches IOO in their under edges, extend from slides H J, respectively, out through slots at a in that end or head of the cylinder which is the nearer to said slides. Plates N O are arranged to overlap the lower edges of these slots, in order that these notched handle-bars may be locked with said plates at any point of endwise adjustment of such slides.

The space bounded by the side walls of each recess F, the movable wall L, the fixed wall at the other end of said recess, and the bottom, consisting of block I, slide J, and platej, constitutes a feed-regulating pocket, the size and shape of which are adjustable by the devices described. The length of the pocket is increased or diminished by adjusting slide J in or out, as stated. By pulling out or moving in slide H this bottom, as a whole, is raised or lowered. By causing catch 1 to engage with notched racl; M and then adjusting slide H outwardly or inwardly eitherend of the pocket may be given more capacity than the other. WVhen the end of the pocket at which catch 1 is located is to be made of absolutely greater or less capacity, the catch Iis shifted from a higher notch of rack M to a lower notch of said rack, or vice versa; but its relative capacity with respect to the other end of said pocket may be determined by raising or lowering the other end of the bottom ofsaid pocket without removing said catch. These adjustments obviously fit it to supply filling for cigars of divers lengths, sizes, and forms. As each pocket comes under the hopper it receives its charge of tobacco-filling, and as said pocket is turned down over the apron it discharges the filling thereon in quantity and arrangement suited to the shape desired for the cigar, and requiring rolling only. When two aprons are to .be supplied alternately, as is found eonvenientin cigar-machines driven by steam-power, the cylinder is given an oscillating movement instead of being rotated, the arc of vibration being such that the pocket on the right discharges on the right-hand apron while the pocket on the left is being supplied with filling, and when the cylinder rocks the other way the reverse action takes place. U11-' der such circumstances it is preferable to remove the lower part of the cylinder, making it a cylindersegment, D, Fig. 6. Of course but two pockets are needed in this modification.

Having thus described myinvention, whatl claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. Afeed-regnlating cylinder provided with a pocket having a vertically-adjustable 'bottom located in a recess of said cylinder, in combination with a block, G, having an inclined face, a slide, H, having a correspondingly-hr clined face to operate in contact therewith for raising said bottom, a bar,N, extending through the end of the cylinder for operating said slide, and a plate, N, for locking said bar and slide, substantially as set forth.

2. A cylinder provided with a feed-regulating pocket which has a vertically-adjustable bottom and an inwardly and outwardly adjustablc end wall to adapt said pocket to supply filling for cigars of varying length and shape, said pocket being located in a recess of said cylinder, substantially as set forth.

3. A cylinder providedwith a feed-regulating pocket having an end wall which is movable inwardly and outwardly and a bottom which may be moved vertically, in combina tion with a catch which holds one end of said bottom stationary at will, substantially as set forth.

4. In combination with the cylinder having recess F, the slide J, carrying end wall, L, the block I, the plate j, attached to said slide and overlapping said block, and the bar 0 and the .moving said slide in or out, the said slide, plate, and block constituting the bottom of the pocket,and the said slide lmvingthe end wall, L, of said pocket raised thereon, for the purpose set forth.

6. In combination with the movable bottom of a feed-regulating pocket, aslide, H, for raising and lowering said bottom, having an inclined lower face, a block, G, having an inclined upper face, the slotted plates 9 and h, attached to the upper faces of said block-and said slide, and the screws hand i, which enter said slots, as stated, and hold said slide to said block and said movable bottom, while allowing the endwise motion of said slide, substantially as set forth.

7. A feed-regulating cylinder provided with a series of pockets, each of which has an ad justable bottom and an adjustable end, substantially as set forth.

8. A feed regulating cylinder having a pocket provided with a vertically-n'iovable bottom and devices for raising the same, in combination with a catch and rack for bold ing one end of said bottom stationary at will, at any desired point, for thepurpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JA MES PRANGLEY.

Witnesses:

ALLAN A. Hana, IRA. H. HERE. 

